Brainstorming Apps for Your Business

As a business owner you might not realize that creating your own application (app) isn’t all that hard, it’s definitely not as hard as you might think. You could for instance find an app that has already been created and depending on the purchase rights, simply resell it as your own, or you could hire someone versed in app development to create an app for you. But first things first, you need to figure out what apps make sense to you and your business. To do this, take a few weeks and brainstorm some app ideas for your business.

Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience fully allows you to better brainstorm your new app for your business. Who are they? What do they want? What are their problems? What problems can I solve with this app?

Understand Your Niche

Remember that your app should focus on solving a problem that your audience has that’s within your specific niche, by doing so you sell the solution and not the product. If you go outside of your niche it will confuse your audience. On top of that you will have to find a whole new audience to purchase your app. Instead, stay focused on your audience, find their problems, their pain points and solve their problems.

Determine a Realistic Budget

Your budget for creating the app will be determined by such factors such as whether or not you have the skills to create the app, whether you have to hire someone to build it for you, or whether or not you’ll be able to find an off the shelf app you can resell for a reasonable mark-up.

Search for Apps Using Search Engines

A good way to research a budget is to search for similar apps on search engines. Regardless of whether you find an app you can resell or a regular app like the one you want to create, you can get a lot of information about pricing and your competition. Don’t get discouraged, even if there are apps similar to the one you want to create and no suitable apps you can resell, you can still make the app and sell it to your own audience.

Find an App Builder (coder)

Once you have a basic idea for an app you need to document your requirements, the better and more precise you can be with this document the better your app will be. You need to be able to portray to someone that doesn’t know you what you want the app to do, to look like and how it should function both from your own perspective but also from the end users perspective. Once you have this document you can go to places like odesk.com and locate a freelancer who is prepared to quote on your project. When selecting a freelancer I have found that the more specific you are with your requirements, the better … and when interviewing work on the assumption that people often tell lies, so ask those questions but also ask for testimonials, examples of projects they have worked on and do check any reviews of them online.

Market Your App

Assuming your now got your app, and even before its complete you should start to market it. If you use the Internet as often as I do, you often see prelaunch sales pages designed simply to inform people about a product about to be launched and asking for emails addresses of those interested in special offers when it’s launched. If your app is complex, tie it to an auto-responder and send out a series of emails to your audience, educating them about your app and how to use it. There are a hundred and one ways to market online, you need to work out where your audience is and go interact with them, build your list and sell your product.

Rinse and Repeat

Once you’ve created one app you can create more and better apps as you’re more experienced now. Especially if your first app sales went well and were profitable. Simply identify another problem, solve it, and sell that app.

Adding an app (or two) to your product funnel will increase your income, as well as expand the view of others that you’re an expert in your field. You will boost your credentials, and offer something unique for your audience to use that helps them with one of their problems.

Website and Marketing Packages

lets make your business a success online

Do you want to be successful online?

I've been marketing and building websites since 1994 and this experience grows and matures as I do. I have come up with a range of website packages that will allow most businesses to: